Government likely to approve new Bengaluru-Chennai expressway by June

April 19, 2017

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Bengaluru-Chennai expressway may get Centre’s nod soon

The proposed 265-km six-lane expressway between Bengaluru and Chennai is expected to get the Centre’s nod by June this year. The ambitious tollway project, once implemented, will cut down fuel consumption and travel time to less than four hours. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari made an announcement to this effect at a review meeting of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects in New Delhi. Besides Bengaluru-Chennai, the government will also sanction Mumbai-Vadodara and Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressways by June, the minister said. The NHAI has planned to implement the project on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis, and has already applied to ministry of environment and forests for clearance. The NHAI will implement the project under 1000-km of expressways it proposes to build under phase VI of the national highways development project (NHDP). The NHAI wants to facilitate high-speed travel on the proposed Bengaluru-Chennai corridor, which will have a width of 90-metres. The highways organization has projected a peak traffic of 45,000 to 60,000 passenger car units (PCUs) a day in three sections along the corridor. The Centre has decided to build the greenfield project as the existing national highway-four (NH-4), which runs parallel to the proposed corridor. The new project will be developed as a fully access controlled facility on a new alignment.